System and method for efficient network reconfiguration in fat-trees

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided for supporting efficient reconfiguration of an interconnection network having a pre-existing routing. An exemplary method can provide a plurality of switches, a plurality of end nodes, and one or more subnet managers, including a master subnet manager. The method can calculate, via the master subnet manager, a first set of one or more leaf-switch to leaf-switch multipaths. The method can store this first set of one or more leaf-switch to leaf-switch multipaths at a metabase. The method can detect a reconfiguration triggering event, and call a new routing for the interconnection network. Finally, the method can reconfigure the network according to the new routing for the interconnection network.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Patent Applicationentitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENT NETWORK RECONFIGURATION INFAT-TREES”, application Ser. No. 15/073,022, filed Mar. 17, 2016, whichclaims the benefit of claims the benefit of priority to U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENT NETWORKRECONFIGURATION IN FAT-TREES”, Application No. 62/136,337, filed on Mar.20, 2015; U.S. Provisional Patent Application entitled “SYSTEM ANDMETHOD FOR EFFICIENT NETWORK RECONFIGURATION IN FAT-TREES”, ApplicationNo. 62/137,492, filed on Mar. 24, 2015; U.S. Provisional PatentApplication entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENT NETWORKRECOGNITION IN FAT-TREES”, Application No. 62/163,847, filed on May 19,2015; U.S. Provisional Patent Application entitled “SYSTEM AND METHODFOR EFFICIENT NETWORK RECOGNITION IN FAT-TREES”, Application No.62/201,476, filed on Aug. 5, 2015; and U.S. Provisional PatentApplication entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFICIENT NETWORKRECOGNITION IN FAT-TREES”, Application No. 62/261,137, filed on Nov. 30,2015; each of which applications are herein incorporated by reference intheir entirety

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is generally related to computer systems, and isparticularly related to supporting efficient reconfiguration ofinterconnection networks.

BACKGROUND

As the size of the high-performance computing systems grows, theprobability of the events requiring network reconfiguration increases.The reconfiguration of interconnection networks, like InfiniBand (IB)networks, often requires computation and distribution of a new set ofroutes in order to maintain connectivity, and to sustain performance.This is the general area that embodiments of the invention are intendedto address.

In large systems, the probability of component failure is high. At thesame time, with more network components, reconfiguration is often neededto ensure high utilization of available communication resources. Forexample, Exascale computing imposes unprecedented technical challenges,including realization of massive parallelism, resiliency, and sustainedperformance. The efficient management of such large systems ischallenging, requiring frequent reconfigurations.

SUMMARY

The reconfiguration of interconnection networks, like InfiniBand (IB)networks, often requires computation and distribution of a new set ofroutes in order to maintain connectivity, and to sustain performance.Where reconfiguration is required, a routing mechanism computes a newset of routes without taking into account the existing networkconfiguration. The configuration-oblivious re-routing results insubstantial modifications to the existing routes, and thereconfiguration becomes more costly as it involves reconfiguring routesbetween a large number of source-destination pairs.

Systems and methods are provided for supporting efficientreconfiguration of an interconnection network having a pre-existingrouting. An exemplary method can provide a plurality of switches, aplurality of end nodes, and one or more subnet managers, including amaster subnet manager. The method can calculate, via the master subnetmanager, a first set of one or more leaf-switch to leaf-switchmultipaths. The method can store this first set of one or moreleaf-switch to leaf-switch multipaths in a metabase. The method candetect a reconfiguration triggering event, and call a new routing forthe interconnection network. Finally, the method can reconfigure thenetwork according to the new routing for the interconnection network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 shows an illustration of an InfiniBand environment, in accordancewith an embodiment.

FIG. 2 shows an illustration of a tree topology in a networkenvironment, accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram of an InfiniBand subnet showing a linearforwarding table associated with a switch of the InfiniBand subnet, inaccordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 4 depicts a block diagram of an updated LFT, in accordance with anembodiment.

FIGS. 5A-5C illustrate an exemplary minimal routing update on nodeshutdown, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIGS. 6A-6C illustrate an exemplary minimal routing update on linkfailure, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary fat-tree network showing pathcalculation and path assignment, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary fat-tree network showing pathcalculation and path assignment, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary fat-tree network showing metabase-aidedfat-tree routing, in accordance with an embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of an exemplary method for supporting efficientreconfiguration of an interconnection network having a pre-existingrouting comprising, in accordance with an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention is illustrated, by way of example and not by way oflimitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which likereferences indicate similar elements. It should be noted that referencesto “an” or “one” or “some” embodiment(s) in this disclosure are notnecessarily to the same embodiment, and such references mean at leastone. While specific implementations are discussed, it is understood thatthe specific implementations are provided for illustrative purposesonly. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that othercomponents and configurations may be used without departing from thescope and spirit of the invention.

Common reference numerals can be used to indicate like elementsthroughout the drawings and detailed description; therefore, referencenumerals used in a figure may or may not be referenced in the detaileddescription specific to such figure if the element is describedelsewhere.

Described herein are systems and methods that can support efficientreconfiguration of an interconnection network having a pre-existingrouting.

The following description of the invention uses an InfiniBand™ (IB)network as an example for a high performance network. It will beapparent to those skilled in the art that other types of highperformance networks can be used without limitation. The followingdescription also uses the fat-tree topology as an example for a fabrictopology. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that othertypes of fabric topologies can be used without limitation.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, virtualization can bebeneficial to efficient resource utilization and elastic resourceallocation in cloud computing. Live migration makes it possible tooptimize resource usage by moving virtual machines (VMs) betweenphysical servers in an application transparent manner. Thus,virtualization can enable consolidation, on-demand provisioning ofresources, and optimizing resource usage through live migration.

InfiniBand™

InfiniBand™ (IB) is an open standard lossless network technologydeveloped by the InfiniBand™ Trade Association. The technology is basedon a serial point-to-point full-duplex interconnect that offers highthroughput and low latency communication, geared particularly towardshigh-performance computing (HPC) applications and datacenters.

The InfiniBand™ Architecture (IBA) supports a two-layer topologicaldivision. At the lower layer, IB networks are referred to as subnets,where a subnet can include a set of hosts interconnected using switchesand point-to-point links. At the higher level, an IB fabric constitutesone or more subnets, which can be interconnected using routers.

Within a subnet, hosts can be connected using switches andpoint-to-point links. Additionally, there can be a master managemententity, the subnet manager (SM), which resides on a designated subnetdevice in the subnet. The subnet manager is responsible for configuring,activating and maintaining the IB subnet. Additionally, the SM can beresponsible for performing routing table calculations in an IB fabric.Here, for example, the routing of the IB network aims at providingcorrect routes with proper load balancing between all source anddestination pairs in the local subnet. A master subnet manager can alsoperforms periodic sweeps of the subnet to detect any topology changesand reconfigure the network accordingly

Through the subnet management interface, the subnet manager exchangescontrol packets, which are referred to as subnet management packets(SMPs), with subnet management agents (SMAs). The SMAs reside on everyIB subnet device. By using SMPs, the subnet manager is able to discoverthe fabric, configure end nodes and switches, and receive notificationsfrom SMAs.

In accordance with an embodiment, inter- and intra-subnet routing in anIB network can be based on linear forwarding tables (LFTs) stored in theswitches. The LFTs are calculated by the SM according to the routingmechanism in use. In a subnet, Host Channel Adapter (HCA) ports on theend nodes and the management port on switches are addressed using localidentifiers (LIDs). Each entry in an LFT is indexed by a destination LID(DLID) and contains an output port. Only one entry per LID in the tableis supported. When a packet arrives at a switch, its output port isdetermined by looking up the entry defined by the DLID in the forwardingtable of the switch. The routing is deterministic as packets take thesame path in the network between a given source-destination pair (LIDpair).

Generally, there can be several SMs in a subnet. However, except for themaster SM, all other SMs act in standby mode for fault tolerance. In asituation where a master subnet manager fails, however, a new mastersubnet manager is negotiated by the standby subnet managers.

Furthermore, hosts and switches within a subnet can be addressed usinglocal identifiers (LIDs), and a single subnet can be limited to 49151unicast LIDs. Besides the LIDs, which are the local addresses that arevalid within a subnet, each IB device can have a 64-bit global uniqueidentifier (GUID). A GUID can be used to form a global identifier (GID),which is an IB layer three (L3) address.

The SM can calculate routing tables (i.e., the connections/routesbetween each pair of nodes within the subnet) at network initializationtime. Furthermore, the routing tables can be updated whenever thetopology changes, in order to ensure connectivity and optimalperformance. During normal operations, the SM (or master SM) can performperiodic light sweeps of the network to check for topology changes. If achange is discovered during a light sweep or if a message (trap)signaling a network change is received by the SM, the SM can reconfigurethe network according to the discovered changes.

For example, the SM can reconfigure the network when the networktopology changes, such as when a link goes down, when a device is added,or when a link is removed. The reconfiguration steps can include thesteps performed during the network initialization. Furthermore, thereconfigurations can have a local scope that is limited to the subnet,in which the network changes occurred. Also, the segmenting of a largefabric with routers may limit the reconfiguration scope.

In accordance with an embodiment, IB networks can support partitioningas a security mechanism to provide for isolation of logical groups ofsystems sharing a network fabric. Each HCA port on a node in the fabriccan be a member of one or more partitions. Partition memberships aremanaged by a centralized partition manager, which can be part of the SM.The SM can configure partition membership information on each port as atable of 16-bit partition keys (P_Keys). The SM can also configureswitches and routers with the partition enforcement tables containingP_Key information associated with the LIDs that are to be forwardedthrough the corresponding port. Additionally, in a general case,partition membership of a switch port can represent a union of allmembership indirectly associated with LIDs routed via the port in anegress (towards the link) direction.

In accordance with an embodiment, for the communication between nodes,Queue Pairs (QPs) and End-to-End contexts (EECs) can be assigned to aparticular partition, except for the management Queue Pairs (QP0 andQP1). The P_Key information can then be added to every IB transportpacket sent. When a packet arrives at an HCA port or a switch, its P_Keyvalue can be validated against a table configured by the SM. If aninvalid P_Key value is found, the packet is discarded immediately. Inthis way, communication is allowed only between ports sharing apartition.

An example InfiniBand fabric is shown in FIG. 1, which shows anillustration of an InfiniBand environment 100, in accordance with anembodiment. In the example shown in FIG. 1, nodes A-E, 101-105, use theInfiniBand fabric, 120, to communicate, via the respective host channeladapters 111-115. In accordance with an embodiment, the various nodes,e.g., nodes A-E, 101-105, can be represented by various physicaldevices. In accordance with an embodiment, the various nodes, e.g.,nodes A-E, 101-105, can also be represented by various virtual devices,such as virtual machines.

Recent trends show an exponential increase in computational power overthe last twenty years. The Exascale computing power (Exascale impliescomputational power capable of performing 10¹⁸ double-precisionfloating-point operations per second, i.e., exaFLOPS) is a nextmilestone to achieve for the high-performance computing (HPC) community.However, the Exascale computing imposes technical challenges, includingrealization of massive parallelism, resiliency, and sustained networkperformance. Because of this, routing plays a crucial role in HPCsystems, and optimized routing and reconfiguration strategies aredesirable to achieve and maintain optimal bandwidth and latency betweennodes of an IB network/subnet.

In HPC clusters, the number of events requiring a networkreconfiguration (i.e., reconfiguration triggering events), as well asthe complexity of each reconfiguration, increases with growing systemsize. These reconfiguration events include component failures, nodeadditions/removals, link errors etc. In addition to handling faults,reconfiguration could also be needed to maintain or improve networkperformance, and to satisfy runtime constraints. For instance, a routingmay need an update to optimize for a changed traffic pattern, or tomaintain Quality-of-Service (QOS) guarantees. Similarly, energy-savingtechniques can rely on server consolidation, virtual machine migrations,and component shutdowns to save power. In all these events, the routingneeds to be updated to cope with the change.

Dynamic network reconfiguration in statically routed IB networksrequires computation and distribution of a new set of routes to theswitches, implemented by means of the linear forwarding tables (LFTs).The subnet manager (SM) employs a routing mechanism to compute new LFTsreflecting the updated topology information. In general, the routingmechanism calculates new paths without considering the existing routesin the network. Such configuration-oblivious routing calculation mightresult in substantial modifications to the existing paths between largenumbers of source-destination (SD) pairs. As a large part of the networkis affected by the routing update, the dynamic reconfiguration oftenrequires costly operations to ensure a deadlock-free transition betweenthe old and the new routing. The transition is carefully planned to makesure that the existing traffic flows are not affected. Moreover, thereconfiguration time increases proportionally to the number of pathupdates to the switches. For these reasons, dynamic reconfiguration inIB is mainly restricted to fault-tolerance, and performance-basedreconfigurations are not well-supported.

Virtual Machines in InfiniBand

During the last decade, the prospect of virtualized HPC environments hasimproved considerably as CPU overhead has been practically removedthrough hardware virtualization support; memory overhead has beensignificantly reduced by virtualizing the Memory Management Unit;storage overhead has been reduced by the use of fast SAN storages ordistributed networked file systems; and network I/O overhead has beenreduced by the use of device passthrough techniques like Single RootInput/Output Virtualization (SR-IOV). It is now possible for clouds toaccommodate virtual HPC (vHPC) clusters using high performanceinterconnect solutions and deliver the necessary performance.

However, when coupled with lossless networks, such as InfiniBand (IB),certain cloud functionality, such as live migration of virtual machines(VMs), still remains an issue due to the complicated addressing androuting schemes used in these solutions.

The traditional approach for connecting IB devices to VMs is byutilizing SR-IOV with direct assignment. However, to achieve livemigration of VMs assigned with IB Host Channel Adapters (HCAs) usingSR-IOV has proved to be challenging. Each IB connected node has threedifferent addresses: LID, GUID, and GID. When a live migration happens,one or more of these addresses change. Other nodes communicating withthe VM-in-migration can lose connectivity. When this happens, the lostconnection can be attempted to be renewed by locating the virtualmachine's new address to reconnect to by sending Subnet Administration(SA) path record queries to the IB Subnet Manager (SM).

IB uses three different types of addresses. A first type of address isthe 16 bits Local Identifier (LID). At least one unique LID is assignedto each HCA port and each switch by the SM. The LIDs are used to routetraffic within a subnet. Since the LID is 16 bits long, 65536 uniqueaddress combinations can be made, of which only 49151 (0x0001-0xBFFF)can be used as unicast addresses. Consequently, the number of availableunicast addresses defines the maximum size of an IB subnet. A secondtype of address is the 64 bits Global Unique Identifier (GUID) assignedby the manufacturer to each device (e.g. HCAs and switches) and each HCAport. The SM may assign additional subnet unique GUIDs to an HCA port,which is useful when SR-IOV is used. A third type of address is the 128bits Global Identifier (GID). The GID is a valid IPv6 unicast address,and at least one is assigned to each HCA port. The GID is formed bycombining a globally unique 64 bits prefix assigned by the fabricadministrator, and the GUID address of each HCA port.

Fat-Tree Topologies and Routing

In accordance with an embodiment, some of the IB based HPC systemsemploy a fat-tree topology to take advantage of the useful propertiesfat-trees offer. These properties include full bisection-bandwidth andinherent fault-tolerance due to the availability of multiple pathsbetween each source destination pair. The initial idea behind fat-treeswas to employ fatter links between nodes, with more available bandwidth,towards the roots of the topology. The fatter links can help to avoidcongestion in the upper-level switches and the bisection-bandwidth ismaintained.

FIG. 2 shows an illustration of a tree topology in a networkenvironment, in accordance with an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, oneor more end nodes 201-204 can be connected in a network fabric 200. Thenetwork fabric 200 can be based on a fat-tree topology, which includes aplurality of leaf switches 211-214, and multiple spine switches or rootswitches 231-234. Additionally, the network fabric 200 can include oneor more levels of intermediate switches, such as switches 221-224.

Also as shown in FIG. 2, each of the end nodes 201-204 can be amulti-homed node, i.e., a single node that is connected to two or moreparts of the network fabric 200 through multiple ports. For example, thenode 201 can include the ports H1 and H2, the node 202 can include theports H3 and H4, the node 203 can include the ports H5 and H6, and thenode 204 can include the ports H7 and H8.

Additionally, each switch can have multiple switch ports. For example,the root switch 231 can have the switch ports 1-2, the root switch 232can have the switch ports 3-4, the root switch 233 can have the switchports 5-6, and the root switch 234 can have the switch ports 7-8.

In accordance with an embodiment, the fat-tree routing mechanism is oneof the most popular routing mechanism for IB based fat-tree topologies.The fat-tree routing mechanism is also implemented in the OFED (OpenFabric Enterprise Distribution—a standard software stack for buildingand deploying IB based applications) subnet manager, OpenSM.

The fat-tree routing mechanism aims to generate LFTs that evenly spreadshortest-path routes across the links in the network fabric. Themechanism traverses the fabric in the indexing order and assigns targetLIDs of the end nodes, and thus the corresponding routes, to each switchport. For the end nodes connected to the same leaf switch, the indexingorder can depend on the switch port to which the end node is connected(i.e., port numbering sequence). For each port, the mechanism canmaintain a port usage counter, and can use this port usage counter toselect a least-used port each time a new route is added. If there aremultiple ports connecting the same two switches, then these ports form aport group. In that case, the least loaded port of the least loaded portgroup is selected to add a new route.

The initial idea behind fat-trees was to employ fatter links, which islinks with more available bandwidth between nodes, as the network movestoward the roots of the topology. The fatter links help to avoidcongestion in the upper-level switches and the bisection-bandwidth ismaintained. Different variations of fat-trees include k-ary-n-trees,Extended Generalized Fat-Trees (XGFTs), Parallel Ports GeneralizedFat-Trees (PGFTs), and Real Life Fat-Trees (RLFTs).

A k-ary-n-tree is an n level fat-tree with kn end nodes and n×k^(n-1)switches, each with 2 k ports. Each switch has an equal number of up anddown connections in the tree, except for the root switches. The XGFTextends k-ary-n-trees by allowing both different number of up and downconnections for the switches, and different number of connections ateach level in the tree. The PGFT definition further broadens XGFTtopologies and permits multiple connections between switches. A largevariety of topologies can be defined using XGFTs and PGFTs. However, forpractical purposes, RLFT, which is a restricted version of PGFT, isintroduced to define fat-trees commonly found in today's HPC clusters. ARLFT uses the same port-count switches at all levels in the fat-tree.

Despite the widespread use, some issues have been identified withfat-tree routing. For example, the fat-tree routing algorithm selectsthe current least-loaded port every time a new path is added to a switchLFT. However, this is not sufficient to maintain proper load-balancingin imbalanced fat-trees. A potential solution to this is using an upwardcounter along with a downward counter for port selection to achievebetter load balancing in imbalanced fat-trees.

FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram of an InfiniBand subnet showing a linearforwarding table associated with a switch of the InfiniBand subnet, inaccordance with an embodiment. In the depicted embodiment, the subnet300 comprises a plurality of switches, e.g., switch 301, 302, 303, and304, which can be interconnected. Linear forwarding table 310 isassociated with switch 301, and can be used by switch 301 to directtraffic within the subnet. As shown in the figure, the linear forwardingtable can be broken down into blocks, and each LID can be associatedwith an output port. Output port 255 in the figure indicates that thepath to such LID is non-existent.

Routing and Network Reconfiguration

In accordance with an embodiment, intra-subnet routing in IB is based onthe LFTs stored in the switches. The LFTs are calculated by the SM usingthe routing algorithm in effect. In a subnet, each Host Channel Adapter(HCA) port on end nodes and all switches are addressed using localidentifiers (LIDs). Each entry in an LFT represents a destination LID(DLID), and contains an output port. When a packet arrives at a switch,its output port is determined by looking up the entry corresponding tothe DLID in its forwarding table. The routing is deterministic aspackets take the same path between a given SD pair.

In accordance with an embodiment, after the subnet is configured as aresult of the initial discovery process (heavy sweep), the SM performsperiodic light sweeps of the subnet to detect any topology changes usingSMP requests to the SMAs. If an SMA detects a change, it forwards amessage to the SM with information about the change. As a part of thereconfiguration process, the SM calls the routing algorithm toregenerate LFTs for maintaining connectivity and performance.

In accordance with an embodiment, An LFT is divided in up to 768 blocks,each block representing 64 LIDs and the corresponding output ports. Whena new set of routes has been calculated for the subnet, the SM updatesthe LFTs in the switches using a differential update mechanism. Theupdate mechanism can utilize a block-by-block comparison betweenexisting and new LFTs, to make sure that only modified blocks are sentto the switches.

FIG. 4 depicts a block diagram of an updated LFT, in accordance with anembodiment. As shown in the figure, LFT 310 is updated to LFT 310′, onlyports for LI Ds 0x0041 and 0x0080 were updated. This means that the LFTupdate 410, i.e., block 2 with two modified entries is sent to theswitch in this example. Note that non-existing paths are marked asdirected to port 255.

Minimal Routing Update

In accordance with an embodiment, a minimal routing update (MRU)technique uses the fact that, given a set of end nodes in a topology,multiple routing functions with the same performance and balancingcharacteristics can be generated. For traffic-oblivious routing infat-trees, the routing function depends on the node ordering, and adifferent routing can be obtained by changing the node routing sequence.The MRU technique ensures that a minimum number of existing paths,between source-destination pairs, are modified when a network isreconfigured.

In accordance with an embodiment, node ordering can be changed due toboth voluntary and involuntary reasons. For example, a nodeaddition/removal or a routing optimization may cause nodes to be routedin a different sequence. The routing function executed after a change innode ordering might result in a different port selection, for the endsnodes at the switches, than the routing algorithm that ran before thechange. Similarly, if a link goes down, the routing sequence for theswitches at the affected fat-tree levels is modified, and so is the portselection at those switches. Even the source destination pairs that arenot affected by the link failure per se, may still be affected by thechange in the routed ports on the switches. Furthermore, node orderingcan also be voluntary changed for performance-based reconfigurations,for instance, to keep network utilization optimal.

FIGS. 5A-5C illustrate an exemplary minimal routing update on nodeshutdown, in accordance with an embodiment. More specifically, FIG. 5Ashows the downward port selection to a switch 520 connected to four endnodes, node A 401, node B 502, node C 503, and node D 504, with twoup-going ports. The port selection is done according to the node order,which is depicted as left to right, (A, B, C, D). That is, the route tonode A is directed through the left-most port, then the route to node Bis directed to the rightmost port (in order to keep balance). The routeto node C is then directed through the leftmost port, and the route tonode D is then routed through the rightmost port, again, to keep theports in balance.

In accordance with an embodiment, FIG. 5B depicts a situation when twoof the nodes, specifically node A 501 and node D 504, are shut down(e.g., the nodes failed). In this situation, using a traditional routingmechanism that assigns ports based upon an index order, the nodeordering, i.e., the ordering of nodes B and C, 502 and 503, is changed.The new node ordering affects the port selection for both the remainingactive nodes B and C. This can be seen in that now the route to node Bis through the leftmost port, and the route to node C is through therightmost port.

In accordance with an embodiment, a MRU-based routing mechanism canpreserve already existing assigned port selections for the end nodes onswitches, as long as the assigned routes are still balanced on theavailable port groups. As shown in FIG. 5C, a system using a MRUmechanism requires no change in the port selection for the remainingactive nodes (i.e., Nodes B and C). Even though MRU does not require anychange in the existing port selections, both the routings, with andwithout MRU, are balanced and yield the same performance.

FIGS. 6A-6C illustrate an exemplary minimal routing update on a linkfailure, in accordance with an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 6A, threenodes, nodes A, B, and C, 601, 602, and 603, communicate through switch620. There are also three links, link 631, link 632, and link 633, thatcarry the traffic towards nodes A, B, and C. The original routing, asshown in FIG. 6A, directs traffic to node A through link 631, traffic tonode B through link 632, and traffic to node C through link 633.

However, the routing must be reconfigured when a link fails. As shown inFIG. 6B, when link 631 fails, a system utilizing a standard fat treerouting mechanism would reconfigure the subnet as shown. Here, startingwith node A (the first in the indexing order, and going from left toright), traffic to node A would be routed through link 632. Thetraditional mechanism would then route traffic to node B through link633, and finally, traffic to node C would be routed through link 632. Asshown in FIG. 6B, using a standard routing mechanism, traffic to allthree nodes would take a different route, which would involve threechanges to the LFTs associated with the three upper switches connectedto switch 620. (Switch 620 will not have a change in its LFT, but theswitches from which the links 631, 632, and 633 are coming will get achange in the LFTs accordingly).

FIG. 6C depicts minimal routing update on link failure, in accordancewith an embodiment. After link 631 fails, a minimal routing updatemechanism can modify the LFTs such that only the routing for traffic tonode A would change to link 632, while the routing for nodes B and Cremain the same. Note that the traffic balancing remains the samedespite there being two fewer link re-routes when using a MRU mechanism.

In accordance with an embodiment, a SlimUpdate fat-tree routingmechanism can employ the above described MRU technique to preserve theexisting routes between SD pairs in a subnet. The mechanism can becompletely contained in the subnet manager and does not require anyglobal information other than the LFTs for the switches. The SlimUpdaterouting mechanism can generate a routing table which is as similar tothe already installed routing table as possible but still preserve thepaths on the links, without affecting the route balancing across thetopology.

In accordance with an embodiment, pseudo code for the SlimUpdate routingis shown here:

SlimUpdate Require: The fabric has been discovered Ensure: The LFTs aregenerated for the switches  1: set_max_counter_on_ports( )  2: for eachsw ∈ leafSwitches[ ] do  3: LFT_(old) 

 get_lfts( )  4: Sort end nodes (lids in LFT_(old) come first)  5: foreach en ∈ endNodes[ ] do  6: Get lid of en  7: Set LFT_(new)[lid] 

 en:hca_port on sw  8: RouteDowngoingByAscending( ) on sw  9: end for10: end for

In accordance with an embodiment, the routing mechanism (variouslyreferred to herein as “SlimUpdate routing mechanism” or “SlimUpdate”) isdeterministic and the routes are calculated backwards, starting at thedestination nodes. For the initial run, when the network does not haveany routing set, the SlimUpdate can generate balanced LFTs spreadingshortest-path routes across the links in the subnet. The SM distributesthe LFTs to the switches, and keeps a copy to enable differentialupdates later. For subsequent runs when a reconfiguration is required(e.g., when a node goes offline or a link goes down), the routingmechanism can read the SM's LFTs copy, and generate a new routingaccording to MRU.

In accordance with an embodiment, before assigning routes, SlimUpdatecan recursively move up the tree, starting at the leaf switches, and setup a maximum counters on all port groups in the downward direction. Thecounters are set using the number of end nodes and available up-goingports at each level (see line 1 of the above pseudo code forSlimUpdate). These counters are used to ensure that SlimUpdate does notcompromise on the load-balancing when preserving existing paths.

In accordance with an embodiment, SlimUpdate works recursively to set upLFTs in all switches for the LI Ds associated with each end node. Foreach leaf switch, the algorithm sorts end nodes connected to it in anorder ensuring that the nodes which are already routed (i.e., alreadyhave LID in the existing LFT), are assigned paths before any newlydiscovered nodes (line 4 of the above pseudo code for SlimUpdate). Themechanism can then call RouteDowngoingByAscending (line 8 of the abovepseudo code for SlimUpdate) and moves up to select a port at the nextlevel to route the LID, as shown in the below pseudo code forRouteDowngoingByAscending:

RouteDowngoingByAscending Require: A switch sw, an end node lid andLFT_(old)  1: counter 

 sw.num_allocated_paths( )  2: current_port 

 sw.get_existing_path(lid, LFT_(old))  3: selected_port 

 current_port  4: g 

 current_port:group( )  5: mxc 

 g.get_max_counter( )  6: if counter ≥ mxc or selected_port is null then 7: Get least-loaded ports from sw.UpGroups[ ] as uplist[ ]  8:selected_port 

 upList.get_port_max_guid( )  9: end if 10: r_sw 

 selected_port.get_remote_switch( ) 11: Set LFT[lid] 

 selected_port on r_sw 12: increase port counter on selected_port 13:RouteUpgoingByDescending( ) on sw 14: RouteDowngoingByAscending( ) onr_sw

In accordance with an embodiment, if the maximum allocated paths do notexceed the maximum counter set for the port, the mechanism uses thecurrent port (if any). However, if the maximum counter has already beenreached (or the port is faulty), the least-loaded port from theavailable up-going groups is selected (see lines 7-8 of the above pseudocode for RouteDowngoingByAscending). As long as the load-balancingcriteria are maintained and corresponding links are still functional,this technique ensures that the end-nodes take the same path in the treeas was prescribed by the old LFTs. Otherwise, the port selection isbased on the least number of already assigned routes to make sure thatthe load is spread across the available paths.

In accordance with an embodiment, after the down-going port is set for aLID at a switch, SlimUpdate can assign upward ports for it on all theconnected downward port groups (except for the one the path originatedfrom) by descending down the tree calling RouteUpgoingByDescending,shown here by pseudo code:

RouteUpgoingByDescending Require: A switch sw, an end node lid andLFT_(old)  1: Get port groups from sw.DownGroups[ ] as dwnlist[ ]  2:for each g in dwnList[ ] do  3: current_port 

 g.get_existing_path(lid, LFT_(old))  4: counter 

 g.num_allocated_paths( )  5: selected port 

 current_port  6: mxc 

 g.get_max_counter( )  7: if counter ≥ mxc or selected_port is null then 8: Get least-loaded ports from g as p  9: selected_port 

 p 10: end if 11: r_sw 

 selected_port.get_remote_switch( ) 12: Set LFT[lid] 

 selected_port on r_sw 13: increase port counter on selected_port 14:RouteUpgoingByDescending( ) on r_sw 15: end for

In accordance with an embodiment, the selection of the up-going port isfirst based on the condition that the node has already been routed andit does not exceed the maximum counter set on the port. If the conditionis not met, the least-loaded port in the port group is selected (seelines 8-9 of the above pseudo code for RouteUpgoingByDescending). Aftera port is selected, the mechanism increases the counter on the selectedport. This process is then repeated by moving up to the next level inthe tree until all LFTs are set.

In accordance with an embodiment, to make the routing better to copewith faults and other irregularities, the SlimUpdate employs a maximumcounter on all port groups. This counter is updated to reflect theactual number of paths routable without affecting the balancing of themechanism.

Embodiments of the systems and methods of the present invention utilizethe minimal routing update mechanism (MRU) for re-routing IB basedfat-tree topologies. The MRU employs techniques to preserve existingforwarding entries in switches to ensure a minimal routing update,without any routing performance penalty, and with low computationaloverhead. The methods and systems described herein show a substantialdecrease in total route modifications when using MRU while achievingsimilar or even better performance on most test topologies andreconfiguration scenarios thereby greatly reducing reconfigurationoverhead as compared to configuration-oblivious re-routing.

Metabase-Aided Network Reconfiguration

In accordance with an embodiment, a fast network reconfigurationmechanism based on a metabase-aided two-phase routing technique forfat-tree topologies can be provided. The method can enable SlimUpdate toquickly calculate a new set of LFTs in performance-based reconfigurationscenarios. However, in general, the metabase-aided networkreconfiguration method can be used to complement any routing mechanismand topology.

In accordance with an embodiment, the routing is to be divided into twodistinct phases: calculation of paths in the topology, and allocation ofthe calculated paths to the actual destinations. For performance basedreconfigurations, when reconfiguration is triggered without a topologychange, the path calculation phase can be eliminated. This can save onpath calculation time, which in turn reduces overall networkreconfiguration time in such scenarios. Moreover, once a set ofcalculated paths has been distributed to the switches, in principle, there-routing phase can be executed in parallel at the switches furtherreducing time overhead. In addition, as the number of distinct paths islimited in a given fat-tree topology, the method reduces routing timefor oversubscribed topologies. Similarly, systems and methods formetabase-aided network reconfiguration can also improve routingefficiency in virtualized subnets based on virtual switch (vSwitch)architecture.

In accordance with an embodiment, within a fat-tree topology, eachcompute node is connected to a single leaf-switch (multi-homed nodesconnected to redundant leaf switches can be considered as distinctmultiple nodes). Because of this, the path between anysource-destination pair, as calculated by a fat-tree routing algorithm,is one of the available multiple leaf-switch to leaf-switch pathsbetween corresponding leaf-switches. In exemplary systems and methodsfor two-phase destination-based routing scheme, paths towardsleaf-switches are calculated using multipath routing in the firstrouting phase. The path calculation can be performed irrespective of thecompute nodes connected to the leaf-switches. In the second phase,calculated paths are allocated to the compute nodes, and LFTs aregenerated or updated accordingly. In addition, the calculated multipathrouting blueprint from the first phase, is stored in a metabase and usedlater for fast network reconfigurations. When a performance basedre-routing is triggered, without a topology change, the routingalgorithm can simply re-use the calculated paths and assign them to thecompute nodes according to its path assignment logic. For instance,paths can be assigned to the compute nodes based on their currentnetwork profiles, or in correspondence with a given node permutation(e.g., a MPI (messaging passing interface) node ranks).

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary fat-tree network showing pathcalculation and path assignment, in accordance with an embodiment. In afirst phase, a routing mechanism can calculate paths towards leaf-switch720. As there are three root switches in the topology, e.g., switch 725,switch 726, and switch 727, the routing mechanism can calculate threedistinct paths towards leaf switch 720, one from each root switch. Foreach of these paths, p1, p2 and p3, the routing mechanism can calculatea complete spanning tree in the topology rooted at the selected rootswitch. Each of the spanning tree, shown with differently dashed/solidlines in FIG. 7, gives one complete set of routes from the other twoleaf switches, leaf switch 721 and leaf switch 722, to leaf switch 720.

In accordance with an embodiment, for fat-trees with single link betweenswitches (non-PGFTs), once a reverse path until a root switch has beenselected for a leaf-switch, building spanning tree is trivial as thereexists only one downward path from a selected root switch to each of theleaf-switches. For fat-trees with parallel links between switches,spanning trees can be calculated recursively by going-down at each levelwhen selecting the reverse path up to the root level. The pathcalculation is done without considering the compute nodes attached tothe leaf switches. The number of the available distinct multipathstowards each leaf-switch depends on the topology.

In accordance with an embodiment, in a second phase, the calculatedpaths for the leaf switches are assigned to the compute nodes accordingto the routing logic. FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary fat-tree networkshowing path calculation and path assignment, in accordance with anembodiment. As depicted in FIG. 8, the routing mechanism can assign thepaths as follows: path p1 can be assigned to node A 801, path p2 can beassigned to node B 802, and path p3 can be assigned to node C 803.Because of this, node SRC 804, which is connected to leaf switch 722,can send traffic on the designated paths to reach corresponding computenodes on leaf switch 720 (i.e., node A 801, node B 802, and/or node C803). For example, a packet from node SRC 804 directed to node B 802will take path p2 to reach node B, following the path leaf switch 722,to root switch 726, to leaf switch 720. At a later time, to change pathtowards node B to p1, the algorithm can alter the path assignment ofnode B from p2 to p1, without going through path re-calculation phase,and reinstall new LFTs. In current/standard fat-tree routing algorithms,such a change would need complete re-routing due to a change in theindexing order of the nodes.

In accordance with an embodiment, a number of distinct paths possibletowards each leaf switch can be calculated, creating spanning trees inthe fat-tree. As an example, starting with an XGFT (Extended GeneralizedFat-Trees), which is a fat tree with h+1 level nodes. Levels are denotedfrom 0 to h, with compute nodes at the lowest level 0, and switches atall other levels. Except for the compute nodes that do not havechildren, all nodes at level i, 1≤i≤h, have m_(i), child nodes.Similarly, except for the root switches that do not have parents, allother nodes at level i, 0≤i≤h−1, have w_(i)+1 parent nodes.

In accordance with an embodiment, a fully populated XGFT has Π_(l=1)^(h)m_(l) compute nodes at level 0, and Π_(l=i+1) ^(h)m_(l)×Π_(l=1)^(i)w_(l) switches at any level i, 1≤i≤h. Each node at level i hasw_(i+1) up-going ports and m_(i), down-going ports. Accordingly, themaximum level of leaf switches at level 1 are Π_(l=2) ^(h)m_(l)×w_(l).Similarly, the total number of root switches at level h are Π_(l=1)^(h)w_(l).

In accordance with an embodiment, the routing between any source (S) anddestination (D) in an XGFT consists of two phases. First, the selectionof an upward path to reach one of the nearest common ancestors (NCAs) ofS and D, and second, a unique downward path from the selected NCA to thedestination D. If the NCAs between the nodes are at level k, 1≤k≤h, thenthere are Π_(i=1) ^(k)w_(i) shortest paths available between the nodes.

In accordance with an embodiment, two types of spanning tree sets can bedefined, each defining a distinct path to a particular leaf-switch in anXGFT from all the other leaf switches in the topology. First, a spanningtree set that contains different spanning trees; whereas a spanning treeis said to be different from another if there exists at least onedifferent communication link between the two. Second, a disjointspanning tree set that contains only those spanning trees that have nocommon communication link between the paths.

In accordance with an embodiment, as by definitions above, from eachroot switch in an XGFT, there exists a distinct path to all the leafswitches. The spanning trees rooted at all the root switches aredifferent from one another in at least one link joining root switches tothe switches at level h−1. So, there are as many different spanningtrees as there are number of root switches in an XGFT. However, not allthese spanning trees are disjoint. There are a different number ofparent nodes at each level in an XGFT; the level which has least numberof parent nodes define the limit for the distinct spanning trees. Thisis because above that number, the spanning tree would always have a linkshared at that limiting level.

Metabase-Aided Fat-Tree Routing and Reconfiguration

In accordance with an embodiment, the pseudo-code of a metabase-aidedfat-tree routing and reconfiguration mechanism is here:

MetabaseAidedRouting  1: if reconfiguration due to a topology changethen  2: Phase I: Calculate n leaf-switch multipaths  3: Phase II: Callrouting function using calculated paths  4: Save calculated paths in ametabase  5: else {performance-based reconfiguration}  6: // Phase I isnot needed  7: Load paths metabase  8: Phase II: Call routing functionusing loaded paths  9: end if 10: for each switch do 11: Update LFTs 12:end for

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary fat-tree network showing metabase-aidedfat-tree routing, in accordance with an embodiment. FIG. 9 depicts anexemplary subnet that comprises six switches, switches 725-727 and rootswitches 720-722. Additionally, various subnet managers can reside onvarious subnet devices, such as on the switches. For example, subnetmanager A 905 can reside on switch 725, subnet manager B 910 can resideon switch 726, and subnet manager C 915 can reside on switch 727. In theexample depicted in FIG. 9, subnet manager A 905 has been designated asthe master subnet manager.

In accordance with an embodiment, in a first phase, the master subnetmanager, subnet manager A 905, can calculate paths towards leaf-switch720. As there are three root switches in the topology, e.g., switch 725,switch 726, and switch 727, three distinct paths can be calculatedtowards leaf switch 720, one from each root switch. For each of thesepaths, p1, p2 and p3, the routing mechanism can calculate a completespanning tree in the topology rooted at the selected root switch. Eachof the spanning trees, shown with differently dashed/solid lines in FIG.9, gives one complete set of routes from the other two leaf switches,leaf switch 721 and leaf switch 722, to leaf switch 720. Aftercalculating the paths towards leaf-switch 720, the master subnet managerA 905 can store the paths in metabase 920. Such path information can beconsidered metadata relative to the current topology data that themaster subnet manager is maintaining based on the discoveredconnectivity within the subnet.

In accordance with an embodiment, the metabase 920 can be one or moreadditional data structures maintained by the master subnet manager.Although the metabase 920 is shown as being separate from the mastersubnet manager in FIG. 9, the metabase can also be considered as acomponent directly associated with the master subnet manager. Forexample, the metabase can comprise virtual memory structures dynamicallyallocated by the master subnet manager during the initial routing, orthe metabase could be based on external persistent file or databasestorage that is accessible to the master subnet manager. When themetabase is stored persistently, the information could be available tothe master subnet manager across subnet manager restarts as long as thesubnet topology is still matching.

In accordance with an embodiment, the metabase can be available to themaster subnet manager without depending on the master subnet managerinitializing the subnet (e.g., an InfiniBand subnet).

In accordance with an embodiment, if a reconfiguration is requested by asubnet manager due to a topology change (e.g., a link goes down), themaster subnet manager can proceed with calculating multipath spanningtrees towards all leaf-switches, and proceeds with calling the routingfunction with the calculated paths as an input. The routing functionuses already calculated paths and assigns them to the compute nodes. Thepaths are then stored in a metabase.

In accordance with an embodiment, for performance-based reconfigurations(i.e., those reconfigurations not based upon a topology change), thepaths metabase is loaded by the master subnet manager, and the routingof compute nodes is done based on already calculated leaf-switch toleaf-switch multipaths. Once the new LFTs have been calculated, themechanism proceeds with updating LFTs on each switch using differentialupdate mechanism using SM as usual.

In accordance with an embodiment, the logic of allocating calculatedpaths to the actual compute node destinations is up to the routingmechanism. The path calculation phase, however, can be equipped withgenerating only a limited number of leaf-switch spanning tree paths(given by n in MetabaseAidedRouting, line 2), or generate only thosepaths making link-disjoint spanning trees in the topology. Moreover, ifthe topology is oversubscribed having more compute nodes attached toeach leaf-switch than the available different spanning trees in thefat-tree network, the routing mechanism can assign multiple computenodes to the same paths.

Network Reconfiguration based on Node Ordering

In accordance with an embodiment, node ordering can play an importantrole in determining the paths for compute nodes in a fat-tree topology.When the node ordering is updated, a new set of LFTs is calculated bythe routing mechanism. Statically-routed networks are prone tosignificant reduction in effective bandwidth when routing is notoptimized for a given node permutation. Even if there is no change inthe topology and network links, the performance of the runningapplications is affected if the routing is not reconfigured for thecurrent node permutation. This is particularly important when only asubset of the total nodes participate in running an application. Toachieve optimal bandwidth, it is important to configure routingaccording to the node order (also called MPI node rank) before runningan application.

In accordance with an embodiment, the fat-tree routing mechanism routesnodes in the order of indexing, which depends on the leaf switchdiscovery order and the port number of the leaf switch to which the nodeis connected. However, it is not always practical to rank MPI processesaccording to the indexing order of the nodes in the fat tree routing. Asa result, application performance becomes unpredictable. The SlimUpdaterouting mechanism can preserve the node order according to the initialrouting scheme, however, as it is designed for generalizedreconfiguration scenarios including fault-tolerance, it takes more timeto reconfigure the network.

In accordance with an embodiment, a modified SlimUpdate routingmechanism can be utilized for the performance-based reconfigurations tooptimize routing for a given node ordering. The modified mechanism canuse a metabase-aided routing scheme to quickly generate a new set ofLFTs when the node ordering sequence is changed.

In accordance with an embodiment, the SlimUpdate routing mechanism forperformance based reconfigurations requires that the leaf-switch toleaf-switch multipaths metabase has been created. It also requires anapplication node ordering (e.g., based on MPI node ranks), which is usedto reassign calculated paths to the compute nodes, to optimize routingfor the given node order.

The pseudo code of the metabase-aided SlimUpdate routing mechanism isgiven here:

SlimUpdate Routing for Node Order-Based Reconfiguration Require:Leaf-to-Leaf Multipaths metabase has been created Require: No topologychange from the last run Require: Application node ordering Ensure: TheLFTs are updated for the switches  1: metabase ← load_paths_metabase( ) 2: for each leaf_sw ∈ leafSwitches[ ] do  3: new_node_order ←get_node_ordering(leaf_sw)  4: Sort compute nodes by new_node_order  5:for each cn ∈ computeNodes[ ] do  6: Get lid of cn  7: path id ←metabase.get_next_path(leaf_sw)  8: for each sw ∈ Switches[ ] do  9: ifsw ≠ leaf_sw then 10: sw.LFT_(new)[lid] 

 path_id.get_sw_port(sw) 11: end if 12: end for 13: end for 14: end for15: Update LFTs using differential update mechanism

In accordance with an embodiment, the mechanism first loads thecalculated multipaths metabase (see line 1 of the above pseudo code forSlimUpdate Routing for Node Order-Based Reconfiguration). Once themetabase is loaded, for each leaf switch, the mechanism can sort computenodes according to the new node order provided as an input to therouting mechanism (see line 4 of the above pseudo code for Slim UpdateRouting for Node Order-Based Reconfiguration). The mechanism can thenproceed with iterating through all the compute nodes attached to theleaf switch. For each compute node, the mechanism can select a path idfrom the metabase based on the leaf-switch (see line 7 of the abovepseudo code for SlimUpdate Routing for Node Order-BasedReconfiguration), which is stored in a sequential order. The path id isused to update LFTs of all the switches based on the port prescribed inthe selected path (see lines 8-12 of the above pseudo code forSlimUpdate Routing for Node Order-Based Reconfiguration). When all newLFTs have been generated, the SM can use a differential update mechanismto update LFTs on all the switches.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of an exemplary method for supporting efficientreconfiguration of an interconnection network having a pre-existingrouting comprising, in accordance with an embodiment.

At step 1010, the method can provide, at one or more computers,including one or more microprocessors, a plurality of switches, theplurality switches comprising one or more leaf switches, wherein each ofthe one or more leaf switches comprise a plurality of ports, a pluralityof end nodes, wherein the plurality of end nodes are interconnected viathe one or more leaf switches, and one or more subnet managers, each ofthe one or more subnet managers associated with one of the plurality ofswitches or end nodes, the one or more subnet managers comprising amaster subnet manager.

At step 1020, the method can calculate, by the master subnet manager, afirst set of one or more leaf-switch to leaf-switch multipaths.

At step 1030, the method can store, by the master subnet manager, thecalculated first set of one or more leaf-switch to leaf-switchmultipaths.

At step 1040, the method can detect, by the master subnet manager, areconfiguration triggering event

At step 1050, the method can call, by the master subnet manager, a newrouting for the interconnection network.

At step 1060, the method can reconfigure the interconnection networkaccording to the new routing for the interconnection network.

Many features of the present invention can be performed in, using, orwith the assistance of hardware, software, firmware, or combinationsthereof. Consequently, features of the present invention may beimplemented using a processing system (e.g., including one or moreprocessors).

Features of the present invention can be implemented in, using, or withthe assistance of a computer program product which is a storage medium(media) or computer readable medium (media) having instructions storedthereon/in which can be used to program a processing system to performany of the features presented herein. The storage medium can include,but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, opticaldiscs, DVD, CD-ROMs, microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs,EPROMs, EEPROMs, DRAMs, VRAMs, flash memory devices, magnetic or opticalcards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any type ofmedia or device suitable for storing instructions and/or data.

Stored on any one of the machine readable medium (media), features ofthe present invention can be incorporated in software and/or firmwarefor controlling the hardware of a processing system, and for enabling aprocessing system to interact with other mechanism utilizing the resultsof the present invention. Such software or firmware may include, but isnot limited to, application code, device drivers, operating systems andexecution environments/containers.

Features of the invention may also be implemented in hardware using, forexample, hardware components such as application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs). Implementation of the hardware state machine so as toperform the functions described herein will be apparent to personsskilled in the relevant art.

Additionally, the present invention may be conveniently implementedusing one or more conventional general purpose or specialized digitalcomputer, computing device, machine, or microprocessor, including one ormore processors, memory and/or computer readable storage mediaprogrammed according to the teachings of the present disclosure.Appropriate software coding can readily be prepared by skilledprogrammers based on the teachings of the present disclosure, as will beapparent to those skilled in the software art.

While various embodiments of the present invention have been describedabove, it should be understood that they have been presented by way ofexample, and not limitation. It will be apparent to persons skilled inthe relevant art that various changes in form and detail can be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

The present invention has been described above with the aid offunctional building blocks illustrating the performance of specifiedfunctions and relationships thereof. The boundaries of these functionalbuilding blocks have often been arbitrarily defined herein for theconvenience of the description. Alternate boundaries can be defined solong as the specified functions and relationships thereof areappropriately performed. Any such alternate boundaries are thus withinthe scope and spirit of the invention.

The foregoing description of the present invention has been provided forthe purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Thebreadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by anyof the above-described exemplary embodiments. Many modifications andvariations will be apparent to the practitioner skilled in the art. Themodifications and variations include any relevant combination of thedisclosed features. The embodiments were chosen and described in orderto best explain the principles of the invention and its practicalapplication, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to understandthe invention for various embodiments and with various modificationsthat are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended thatthe scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and theirequivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for supporting efficient reconfigurationof an interconnection network having a pre-existing routing comprising:providing, at one or more computers, including one or moremicroprocessors, a plurality of switches, the plurality of switchescomprising one or more leaf switches, wherein each of the one or moreleaf switches comprise a plurality of ports, and wherein each of theplurality of switches comprises a linear forwarding table of a pluralityof linear forwarding tables, each linear forwarding table being setaccording to the pre-existing routing, a plurality of end nodes, whereinthe plurality of end nodes are interconnected via the one or more leafswitches, and one or more subnet managers, each of the one or moresubnet managers associated with one of the plurality of switches orplurality of end nodes, the one or more subnet managers comprising amaster subnet manager; calculating, by the master subnet manager, afirst set of one or more leaf-switch to leaf-switch multipaths; storing,by the master subnet manager, the calculated first set of one or moreleaf-switch to leaf-switch multipaths in a metabase, the metabase beingassociated with the master subnet manager; detecting, by the mastersubnet manager, a reconfiguration triggering event, wherein thereconfiguration triggering event comprises at least one of a changednetwork traffic pattern, a drop in Quality-of-Service (QOS), and achange in node ordering; calling, by the master subnet manager, a newrouting for the interconnection network; and reconfiguring theinterconnection network according to the new routing for theinterconnection network, wherein reconfiguring, by the master subnetmanager, the interconnection network according to the new routing forthe interconnection network updates at least one linear forwarding tableof the plurality of linear forwarding tables according to the calculatedfirst set of one or more leaf-switch to leaf-switch multipaths.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the reconfiguration triggering event furthercomprises a topology change of the interconnection network.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the topology change of the interconnectionnetwork comprises one of the group consisting of node failure and linkfailure.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: calculating, bythe master subnet manager, a second set of one or more leaf-switch toleaf-switch multipaths, the second set of one or more leaf-switch toleaf-switch multipaths being associated with the topology change of theinterconnection network; wherein the reconfiguring, by the master subnetmanager, the interconnection network according to the new routing forthe interconnection network further updates one or more linearforwarding tables of the plurality of linear forwarding tables accordingto the calculated second set of one or more leaf-switch to leaf-switchmultipaths; and wherein the calculated second set of one or moreleaf-switch to leaf-switch multipaths is stored, by the master subnetmanager, in the metabase.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:prior to detecting the reconfiguration triggering event, distributing atleast one multipath of the calculated first set of one or moreleaf-switch to leaf-switch multipaths to the plurality of switches; andwherein reconfiguring the interconnection network according to the newrouting for the interconnection network comprises; updating theplurality of switches in parallel resulting in reduced overhead.
 6. Asystem for supporting efficient reconfiguration of an interconnectionnetwork having a pre-existing routing comprising: one or moremicroprocessors; one or more computers; a plurality of switches, theplurality of switches comprising at least one leaf switch, wherein eachof the one or more switches comprise a plurality of ports, and whereineach of the plurality of switches comprises a linear forwarding table ofa plurality of linear forwarding tables, each linear forwarding tablebeing set according to the pre-existing routing; a plurality of endnodes, wherein the plurality of end nodes are interconnected via the oneor more switches; one or more subnet managers, each of the one or moresubnet managers associated with one of the plurality of switches orplurality of end nodes, the one or more subnet managers comprising amaster subnet manager; and a metabase, the metabase being associatedwith the master subnet manager; wherein the master subnet manager isconfigured to calculate a first set of one or more leaf-switch toleaf-switch multipaths; wherein the master subnet manager is configuredto store the calculated first set of one or more leaf-switch toleaf-switch multipaths at the metabase; wherein the master subnetmanager is configured to detect a reconfiguration triggering event, thereconfiguration triggering event comprising at least one of a changednetwork traffic pattern, a drop in Quality-of-Service (QOS), and achange in node ordering; wherein the master subnet manager is configuredto load a new routing for the interconnection network; and wherein theinterconnection network is reconfigured, by the master subnet manager,according to the new routing for the interconnection network by updatingat least one linear forwarding table of the plurality of linearforwarding tables according to the calculated first set of one or moreleaf-switch to leaf-switch multipaths.
 7. The system of claim 6, whereinthe reconfiguration triggering event further comprises a topology changeof the interconnection network.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein thetopology change of the interconnection network comprises one of thegroup consisting of node failure and link failure.
 9. The system ofclaim 8, wherein the master subnet manager is further configured tocalculate a second set of one or more leaf-switch to leaf-switchmultipaths, the second set of one or more leaf-switch multipaths beingassociated with the topology change of the interconnection network;wherein the master subnet manager is configured to further update one ormore linear forwarding tables of the plurality of linear forwardingtables according to the calculated second set of one or more leaf-switchmultipaths; and wherein the master subnet manager is configured to storethe calculated second set of one or more leaf-switch to leaf-switchmultipaths in the metabase.
 10. The system of claim 6, wherein theinterconnection network comprises an InfiniBand subnet.
 11. Anon-transitory computer readable storage medium, including instructionsstored thereon for supporting efficient reconfiguration of aninterconnection network having a pre-existing routing, which when readand executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers toperform steps comprising: providing, at the one or more computers,including one or more microprocessors, a plurality of switches, theplurality of switches comprising one or more leaf switches, wherein eachof the one or more leaf switches comprise a plurality of ports, andwherein each of the plurality of switches comprises a linear forwardingtable of a plurality of linear forwarding tables, each linear forwardingtable set according to the pre-existing routing, a plurality of endnodes, wherein the plurality of end nodes are interconnected via the oneor more leaf switches, and one or more subnet managers, each of the oneor more subnet managers associated with one of the plurality of switchesor plurality of end nodes, the one or more subnet managers comprising amaster subnet manager running at the one or more computers; calculating,by the master subnet manager, a first set of one or more leaf-switch toleaf-switch multipaths; storing, by the master subnet manager, thecalculated first set of one or more leaf-switch to leaf-switchmultipaths in a metabase, the metabase being associated with the mastersubnet manager; detecting, by the master subnet manager, areconfiguration triggering event, wherein the reconfiguration triggeringevent comprises at least one of a changed network traffic pattern, adrop in Quality-of-Service (QOS), and a change in node ordering;calling, by the master subnet manager, a new routing for theinterconnection network; and reconfiguring the interconnection networkaccording to the new routing for the interconnection network, whereinreconfiguring, by the master subnet manager, the interconnection networkaccording to the new routing for the interconnection network updates atleast one linear forwarding table of the plurality of linear forwardingtables according to the calculated first set of one or more leaf-switchto leaf-switch multipaths.
 12. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 11, wherein the reconfiguration triggering eventfurther comprises a topology change of the interconnection network. 13.The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12, whereinthe topology change of the interconnection network comprises one of thegroup consisting of node failure and link failure.
 14. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, the stepsfurther comprising: calculating, by the master subnet manager, a secondset of one or more leaf-switch to leaf-switch multipaths, the second setof one or more leaf-switch to leaf-switch multipaths being associatedwith the topology change of the interconnection network; wherein thereconfiguring, by the master subnet manager, the interconnection networkaccording to the new routing for the interconnection network furtherupdates one or more linear forwarding tables of the plurality of linearforwarding tables according to the calculated second set of one or moreleaf-switch to leaf-switch multipaths; and wherein the calculated secondset of one or more leaf-switch to leaf-switch multipaths is stored, bythe master subnet manager, in the metabase.